Systems and methods for use in transferring funds between payment accounts

ABSTRACT

Systems and methods are provided for use in facilitating fund transfers between source accounts and destination accounts, based on source account identifiers included in computer-readable indicia. One exemplary method includes capturing, by a computing device, at least one symbol representative of a destination account identifier associated with the destination account and identifying, by the computing device, a source account. The method further includes receiving, by the computing device, at least one payment parameter and causing, by the computing device, a fund transfer transaction based on the destination account identifier, the source account identifier, and the at least one payment parameter, whereby a payment from the source account to the destination account is initiated.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

This application claims the benefit of, and priority to, U.S.Provisional Application No. 62/306,033 filed on Mar. 9, 2016. The entiredisclosure of the above application is incorporated herein by reference.

FIELD

The present disclosure generally relates to systems and methods for usein transferring funds between financial accounts, for example, fromsource accounts to destination accounts, and in particular, for use inidentifying the destination accounts based on computer-readable indiciaassociated with the destination accounts.

BACKGROUND

This section provides background information related to the presentdisclosure which is not necessarily prior art.

Payment accounts are used by consumers to perform numerous differenttransactions including, for example, purchasing products (e.g., goodsand/or services) from merchants, transferring funds to otherindividuals, etc. Credentials for identification and use of the paymentaccounts are typically distributed to the consumers by issuers of thepayment accounts in the form of account devices such as payment cards,fobs, and electronic wallet applications. Such account devices theninclude primary account numbers (PANs) or tokens associated with thepayment accounts, for use in identifying the payment accounts in thedifferent transactions. Separately, it is known that many consumers ownor have access to computing devices capable of scanning/capturing andinterpreting barcodes, such as mobile phones with built-in cameras.

DRAWINGS

The drawings described herein are for illustrative purposes only ofselected embodiments and not all possible implementations, and are notintended to limit the scope of the present disclosure.

FIG. 1 is an exemplary system of the present disclosure suitable for usein transferring funds between payment accounts using computer-readableindicia to identify destination accounts to receive the transferredfunds;

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of a computing device that may be used in theexemplary system of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is an exemplary method, which may be implemented in connectionwith the system of FIG. 1, for transferring funds from a source accountto a destination account, wherein the destination account is identifiedbased on computer-readable indicia representative of a primary accountnumber (PAN) for the destination account; and

FIG. 4 is an exemplary interface associated with a fund transferapplication, which may be used in connection with the system of FIG. 1and/or the method of FIG. 3.

Corresponding reference numerals indicate corresponding parts throughoutthe several views of the drawings.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Exemplary embodiments will now be described more fully with reference tothe accompanying drawings. The description and specific examplesincluded herein are intended for purposes of illustration only and arenot intended to limit the scope of the present disclosure.

Access devices, such as credit cards, debit cards, fobs, virtual ordigital cards, and the like, are often associated with payment accounts,and are carried by a large percentage of consumers to effect use ofpayment accounts. Increasingly, consumers desire to transfer funds, withother consumers, directly through use of their payment accounts.Uniquely, the systems and methods herein enable such direct fundtransfers between consumers via computer-readable indicia (e.g., locatedon the access devices, etc.), used to identify recipients' paymentaccounts for receiving the transferred funds. For example, consumers mayinitiate fund transfers to desired recipients by scanningcomputer-readable indicia associated with payment accounts for therecipients receiving the funds, whereby the funds are then transferredfrom the consumers' payment accounts to the recipients' paymentaccounts. As such, the fund transfers are substantially simplified, andadditional security is provided via use of the computer-readable indicia(to essentially hide primary account numbers for the recipients' paymentaccounts).

FIG. 1 illustrates an exemplary system 100, in which the one or moreaspects of the present disclosure may be implemented. Although thesystem 100 is presented in one arrangement, other embodiments mayinclude the parts of the system 100 (or other parts) arranged otherwisedepending on, for example, implementation of fund transfers in thesystem 100, involvement of different parts of the system 100 inconnection with such fund transfers, etc.

The system 100 generally includes financial institutions 102, 104 and apayment network 106, each coupled to and in communication withcommunications network 108. The communications network 108 may include,without limitation, a local area network (LAN), a wide area network(WAN) (e.g., the Internet, etc.), a mobile network, a virtual privatenetwork, and/or another suitable public and/or private network capableof supporting communication among two or more of the parts illustratedin FIG. 1, or any combination thereof. For example, communicationsnetwork 108 may include multiple different networks, such as a privatetransaction network made accessible by the payment network 106 to thefinancial institutions 102, 104 and, separately, the public Internet,which may be accessible to consumers 110, 112, as well as other parts ofthe system 100, etc. as desired.

The two consumers 110, 112 of the system 100 are each associated with anaccount (e.g., a credit account, a deposit account, a savings account,combinations thereof, etc.) that is accessible via payment network 106.In addition in the system 100, the account associated with the consumer110 is provided by the financial institution 102, and the accountassociated with the consumer 112 is provided by the financialinstitution 104 (although this separation is not required in allembodiments). And, through their accounts, the consumers 110, 112 areable to receive and/or transfer funds, as described herein (e.g., withthe financial institutions 102, 104 then acting as issuers, acquirers,etc. in the various transactions, as appropriate). While only twoconsumers 110, 112 and two financial institutions 102, 104 areillustrated in FIG. 1, it should be appreciated that the system 100 mayinclude any desired numbers of consumers and/or financial institutionswithin the scope of the present disclosure.

Also in the system 100, the consumer 112 is in possession of an accountaccess device 114 associated with his/her account (e.g., a credit card,a debit card, a fob, a smartcard, a sticker, a communication deviceenabled for transactions via an electronic wallet application, anotherdevice, etc.). While not illustrated, the consumer 110 may also be inpossession of an account access device associated with his/her account.The account access device 114 is provided and/or issued to the consumer112 by the financial institution 104, for example, in connection withproviding the account to the consumer 112. Further in the system 100,the consumer 110 is associated with a communication device 116, use ofwhich, in connection with transferring funds as described herein, willbe described in more detail hereinafter. The consumer 112 may also beassociated with a communication device in various embodiments.

FIG. 2 illustrates an exemplary computing device 200 that can be used inthe system 100. The computing device 200 may include, for example, oneor more servers, workstations, personal computers, laptops, tablets,smartphones, PDAs, ATMs, etc. In addition, the computing device 200 mayinclude a single computing device, or it may include multiple computingdevices located in close proximity or distributed over a geographicregion, so long as the computing devices are configured to function asdescribed herein. However, the system 100 should not be considered to belimited to the computing device 200, as described below, as differentcomputing devices and/or arrangements of computing devices may be used.In addition, different components and/or arrangements of components maybe used in other computing devices.

In the system 100, each of the financial institutions 102, 104 and thepayment network 106 are illustrated as including, or being implementedin, computing device 200, coupled to the communications network 108. Inaddition, the communication device 116 illustrated in FIG. 1 may beconsidered a computing device consistent with computing device 200. Itshould be appreciated that the communication device 116 may include anysuitable computing device such as, for example, a mobile phone (e.g., asmartphone, etc.), a tablet, a laptop, etc.

Referring to FIG. 2, the exemplary computing device 200 includes aprocessor 202 and a memory 204 coupled to (and in communication with)the processor 202. The processor 202 may include one or more processingunits (e.g., in a multi-core configuration, etc.). For example, theprocessor 202 may include, without limitation, a central processing unit(CPU), a microcontroller, a reduced instruction set computer (RISC)processor, an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC), aprogrammable logic device (PLD), a gate array, and/or any other circuitor processor capable of the operations described herein.

The memory 204, as described herein, is one or more devices that permitdata, instructions, etc., to be stored therein and retrieved therefrom.The memory 204 may include one or more computer-readable storage media,such as, without limitation, dynamic random access memory (DRAM), staticrandom access memory (SRAM), read only memory (ROM), erasableprogrammable read only memory (EPROM), solid state devices, flashdrives, CD-ROMs, thumb drives, floppy disks, tapes, hard disks, and/orany other type of volatile or nonvolatile physical or tangiblecomputer-readable media. The memory 204 may be configured to store,without limitation, transaction data, account information, and/or othertypes of data (and/or data structures) suitable for use as describedherein.

Furthermore, in various embodiments, computer-executable instructionsmay be stored in the memory 204 for execution by the processor 202 tocause the processor 202 to perform one or more of the functionsdescribed herein, such that the memory 204 is a physical, tangible, andnon-transitory computer readable storage media. Such instructions oftenimprove the efficiencies and/or performance of the processor 202 that isperforming one or more of the various operations herein.

In the exemplary embodiment, the computing device 200 also includes apresentation unit 206 that is coupled to (and in communication with) theprocessor 202 (however, it should be appreciated that the computingdevice 200 could include output devices other than the presentation unit206, etc.). The presentation unit 206 outputs information (e.g., fundtransfer application interfaces, etc.), visually, for example, to a userof the computing device 200 such as the consumer 110; the consumer 112;users associated with one or more of the financial institution 102, 104and/or the payment network 106; etc. Various interfaces (e.g., asdefined by internet-based applications, websites, etc.) may be displayedat computing device 200, and in particular at presentation unit 206, todisplay certain information, as described herein. The presentation unit206 may include, without limitation, a liquid crystal display (LCD), alight-emitting diode (LED) display, an organic LED (OLED) display, an“electronic ink” display, speakers, etc. In some embodiments,presentation unit 206 includes multiple devices.

In addition, the computing device 200 includes an input device 208 thatreceives inputs from the user (i.e., user inputs) such as, for example,PANs, indicia of PANs, other account details, etc. The input device 208is coupled to (and is in communication with) the processor 202 and mayinclude, for example, one or more of a keyboard, a pointing device, amouse, a stylus, a card reader, another data or symbol reader (forreading data or other symbols as referenced herein), a camera, a touchsensitive panel (e.g., a touch pad or a touch screen, etc.), anothercomputing device, and/or an audio input device. Further, in variousexemplary embodiments, a touch screen, such as that included in atablet, a smartphone, or similar device, behaves as both a presentationunit and an input device.

Further, the illustrated computing device 200 also includes a networkinterface 210 coupled to (and in communication with) the processor 202and the memory 204. The network interface 210 may include, withoutlimitation, a wired network adapter, a wireless network adapter, amobile network adapter, or other device capable of communicating to oneor more different networks, including the communications network 108.Further, in some exemplary embodiments, the computing device 200includes the processor 202 and one or more network interfacesincorporated into or with the processor 202.

Referring again to FIG. 1, the access device 114 associated with theconsumer 112 in the system 100 includes a computer-readable indicia 118.The computer-readable indicia 118 generally includes encoded data,relating to the account of the consumer 112, in visual or optical form,or in another form detectable by a computing device. Thecomputer-readable indicia 118 may be encoded such that it isinterpretable by the communication device 116 (e.g., computing device200, etc.), as will be described, but designed so as not to beinterpreted (or interpretable) by people (e.g., by consumers 110, 112,etc.) (as compared to conventional implementations where a PAN, forexample, is printed on a device in a straight numerical format, easilyreadable by people). It should be appreciated that the computer-readableindicia 118 of the access device 114 is readable by the communicationdevice 116, so long as the communication device is configured with anappropriate input device 208 and/or associated application, for example,but, again, is relatively difficult to interpret by a person who merelysees the computer-readable indicia 118.

More particularly, the computer-readable indicia 118 generally includes(e.g., is encoded with, etc.) an account identifier (or multiple accountidentifiers) for the account associated with the consumer 112 (e.g.,indicative of account information necessary to effect a deposit to theconsumer's account, etc.). The account identifier may include, forexample, a PAN associated with the consumer's account, or it may includea token (or multiple tokens) associated with the consumer's account/PAN.Further, in some embodiments, the account identifier may include demanddeposit account (DDA) information or the like, enabling fund transfervia an automated clearing house (ACH). In addition, thecomputer-readable indicia 118 may include other information encodedtherein that directly or indirectly identifies the consumer's account.For instance, the computer-readable indicia 118 may also include anaccount name, the name of the consumer 112 associated with the account,the name of the financial institution 104 associated with the account,etc. Such additional information, when included with thecomputer-readable indicia 118, may enable a scanning computing device(such as the communication device 116) to display or otherwise indicateto the user (such as consumer 110) a name associated with the accountidentifier included in the computer-readable indicia 118, etc. The user(e.g., consumer 110) may then confirm that the scanned accountidentifier is associated with the desired account into which funds areto be transferred (and/or the consumer 112, for example, to whom fundsare to be transferred). In other embodiments, when the computer-readableindicia 118 is used to support payment of an invoice, for example, theinformation encoded in the computer-readable indicia 118 could alsoinclude an amount due in connection with the invoice, etc.

As an example, the computer-readable indicia 118 on the access device114 may include the PAN for the account of the consumer 112, and a token(or multiple tokens) for use with other devices (although, the sametoken may be used for all devices in some embodiments, including theaccess device 114). When used, the PAN and/or token may further enableonly deposits to the consumer's account, preventing withdrawals based onthe PAN and/or token (although this is not required in all embodiments).Such PAN-based and/or token-based rules may be enforced by the financialinstitution 104 or their service providers (not shown), for example,while processing transaction/transfer requests to the consumer'saccount. For instance, if a token is issued to the consumer 112 whichenables only deposits to the consumer's account, and a transfer requestfor a withdrawal, or debit, from the consumer's account, including thedeposit-only token, is sent to the financial institution 104 associatedwith the account, the financial institution 104 may deny and/or declinethe transaction/transfer, preventing the withdrawal from occurring.Thus, in this example, the consumer 112 may use the token in associationwith computer-readable indicia 118 printed, for example, on businesscards and invoices for the consumer 112. Then, any individual inpossession of one of the consumer's business cards or invoices cantransfer/pay funds to the consumer's associated account, without concernby the consumer 112 of such individuals withdrawing funds from theaccount. In some implementations, the token may further be limited as aone-time use token.

In the illustrated embodiment, the computer-readable indicia 118associated with the access device 114 includes a QR code 118 a. In otherembodiments, however, the computer-readable indicia 118 may includeother indicia such as, for example, barcodes, other visiblepatterns/symbols, etc. In addition, a design of the computer-readableindicia 118 may include any desired design and, in some implementations,may be used as a brand or acceptance mark to build consumer awareness,etc. (e.g., while indicia 118 a is shown as a generally square design inFIG. 1, it could have other designs used as a brand or acceptance mark;etc.).

Also in the illustrated embodiment, the access device 114 is illustratedas a credit card 114 a, and the computer-readable indicia 118 includesthe QR code 118 a printed on a portion of the credit card 114 a.Alternatively, the computer-readable indicia 118 may include a stickercomprising the QR code 118 a (or another code, pattern, symbol, etc.),issued to the consumer 112 by the financial institution 104, which theconsumer 112 can then glue or otherwise affix to the access device 114(or to another object, such as another credit/debit card, a businesscard, a mobile phone case, a keychain, a radio frequency (RF) shieldpocket/pouch, etc.). Here, the sticker may be distributed withinstructions indicating how/where to affix the sticker to the accessdevice 114 (or other object). As a sticker to be placed on the creditcard 114 a, for example, the QR code 118 a may be printed and suppliedto the consumer 112 in a PIN mailer, etc. Further, in other embodiments,the computer-readable indicia 118 may be associated with the accessdevice 114 (or other object) via other operations such as, for example,embedding, embossing, painting, engraving, laser-etching, printing, orany other means for affixing or otherwise associating the indicia 118with the access device 114, etc. As an example, the access device 114may include a radio frequency identification (RFID) element and/or nearfield communication (NFC) tag, and the computer-readable indicia 118 maybe encoded on the RFID element and/or NFC tag, where the RFID elementand/or NFC tag are associated with a payment network compatiblecontactless payment application and where the indicia 118 is readableand/or retrieved as a payment application PAN (or other RFID/NFCsolution where the indicia 118 can be retrieved). As another example,the computer-readable indicia 118 may be provided to the consumer 112electronically (e.g., via email, etc.), and the consumer 112 can thenprint the computer-readable indicia as desired (e.g., on stickers,directly on the access device 114, on business cards, on invoices,etc.).

In some embodiments, computer-readable indicia relating to accounts ofconsumers may include indicia that is invisible to the human eye, butdetectable by a computing device (such as computing device 200), forexample, via RFID technology, Bluetooth technology, or the like. Inaddition, in some embodiments, computer-readable indicia may includevirtual-type indicia that can be displayed, for example, at computingdevices (e.g., at a presentation unit 206 of a computing device 200,etc.), and distributed to consumers via network connections (e.g., viacommunications network 108, etc.).

With continued reference to FIG. 1, the communication device 116associated with the consumer 110 includes a fund transfer application,through which the communication device 116 is configured to performvarious operations described herein relating to transfer of funds. Thisapplication may be a stand-alone application provided by the financialinstitution 104 or the payment network 106, or alternatively theapplication could be incorporated into other applications from thefinancial institution 104 or from a digital service provider that holdsaccount details for the consumer 110, such as Amazon®, Facebook®,Alipay®, Apple® and Google®. In any event, the communication device 116is configured, by the fund transfer application, as defined byexecutable instructions, to perform as described herein. In particular,the communication device 116 may be configured, by the fund transferapplication, to perform as defined by the following exemplaryinstructions:

using MasterCard.SDK; using MasterCard.SDK.Services.MoneySend; usingMasterCard.SDK.Services.MoneySend.Domain; TransferService service = newTransferService(testUtils.GetConsumerKey( ), testUtils.GetPrivateKey( ),Environments.Environment.SANDBOX); PanEligibilityRequestpanEligibilityRequest = new PanEligibilityRequest( );panEligibilityRequest.ReceivingAccountNumber = 5184680430000014L;PanEligibility panEligibility =service.GetPanEligibility(panEligibilityRequest); if PanEligibility <>NULL {  TransferRequest transferRequestMapped = new TransferRequest( );  transferRequestMapped.LocalDate = ″1212″;  transferRequestMapped.LocalTime = ″161222″;  transferRequestMapped.TransactionReference = 4000000003010101016L; transferRequestMapped.FundingMapped.SubscriberId = ″sneder@email.com″; transferRequestMapped.FundingMapped.SubscriberType = ″EMAIL_ADDRESS″; transferRequestMapped.FundingMapped.SubscriberAlias = ″My Debit Card″;  transferRequestMapped.FundingUCAF =″MjBjaGFyYWN0ZXJqdW5rVUNBRjU=1111″; transferRequestMapped.FundingMasterCardAssignedId = 123456;  transferRequestMapped.FundingAmount.Value = 15000; transferRequestMapped.FundingAmount.Currency = 840; transferRequestMapped.ReceivingCard.AccountNumber = 5184680430000014L;  transferRequestMapped.ReceivingAmount.Value = 182206; transferRequestMapped.ReceivingAmount.Currency = 484;  transferRequestMapped.TransactionDesc = ″P2P″; } Transfer transfer =service.GetTransfer(transferRequestMapped);

It should be appreciated that the above code segment is exemplary only,and illustrative of operations described herein, but may be alteredand/or expanded upon to perform other operations described herein, or asnecessary or desired, and/or to perform operations in one or moredifferent manners.

Further, the fund transfer application may enable the consumer 110, viathe communication device 116, upon receiving account information fromthe consumer 112 (via the computer-readable indicia 118 of access device114), to transfer funds to the account associated with the consumer 112from his/her account. In addition, in various embodiments, the fundtransfer application also enables the consumer 110, via thecommunication device 116, to facilitate transfer of funds to his/heraccount, for example, from the account associated with the consumer 112,etc. As indicated above, the fund transfer application may be providedby and/or associated with the financial institution 104 connected withthe account for the consumer 110, or it may be provided by and/orassociated with the payment network 106 or another part of the system100 shown (or not shown, such as a digital service provider that holdsaccount details for the consumer 110), for use at the communicationdevice 116.

In an example transaction, the consumer 110 may desire to transfer fundsfrom his/her account (as a source account) to the account of theconsumer 112 (as a destination account), for example, via thecommunication device 116 using various application programminginterfaces (APIs) associated with the fund transfer application. Thecommunication device 116 includes an input device (e.g., input device208, etc.) by which the consumer 110 can scan (or otherwise capture,view, record, interpret, photograph, etc.) the computer-readable indicia118 of the access device 114 of the consumer 112. For instance, thecommunication device 116 may include a camera that can capture the QRcode 118 a (or, alternatively, a barcode, etc.) and interpret the dataencoded therein. Alternatively, or additionally, the communicationdevice 116 may include an input device enabling detection/interpretationof RFID signals, NFC signals, or the like.

Alternatively, the consumer 112 may provide the computer-readableindicia 118 to the consumer 110, for example, in an electronic form suchan image in an email, within a PDF document attached to an email, ordisplayed on a web page, etc. The communication device 116 can then beused by the consumer 110 to access the electronic form of the indicia118, via suitable techniques (e.g., using reading functionality in anemail client, web browser, etc.), and thereby include the indicia (andany account information therein) in the fund transfer application.

In any case, upon scanning the computer-readable indicia 118, thecommunication device 116 (e.g., a processor 202 associated therewith,etc.), via the fund transfer application, interprets the encodedinformation (at the indicia 118) and extracts the account identifier andother information for the account of the consumer 112. The communicationdevice 116 also receives an input from the consumer 110 regarding a fundtransfer amount and account information associated with his/her ownsource account to facilitate the transfer (alternatively, the sourceaccount information to be used in the transfer by the consumer 110 mayalready be present in the fund transfer application). The input from theconsumer 110 regarding his/her account information may include a manualentry of his/her PAN for the source account, a scan of acomputer-readable indicia associated with the source account (e.g., on abanking card associated with the consumer 110, etc.), etc. In someembodiments, other information extracted from the computer-readableindicia may include recipient customer data to support the processingand reconciliation of the payment, for example, a payment amount, aninvoice identifier (e.g., an invoice number, etc.), a productidentifier, combinations thereof, etc. (potentially depending on wherethe computer-readable indicia 118 is located).

In some embodiments, the fund transfer application may alternatively beassociated with a kiosk (or other device independent of the consumer110), to allow transfers between the consumer 110 and the consumer 112,for example, when the customer 110 does not have the communicationdevice 116, or other suitable personal device, or network connectivity.

Upon receiving the fund transfer details, and when the fund transferapplication is provided by and/or associated with the financialinstitution 104, the communication device 116, via the fund transferapplication, may effect a push transaction to debit the appropriatefunds from the source account of the consumer 110. Upon success, thepayment network 106 (or an API provided by the payment network 106, orby a third party that may or may not be connected to the payment network106) pushes the fund transfer request to the financial institution 104(e.g., the destination (or recipient) bank, etc.) associated with theconsumer 112, or even potentially directly to the bank account of theconsumer 112. Clearing and settlement of the transaction may beimmediate or may delayed, for example, depending on the network messagetype and the payment network 106.

For example, the communication device 116 may compile a transactionrequest (e.g., a transfer request, etc.) based on the extracted accountidentifier for the destination account of the consumer 112, the sourceaccount data for the consumer 110, and the fund transfer amount. Inconnection therewith, the communication device 116, via the fundtransfer application, submits the request to the financial institution102 (associated with the source account of consumer 110), along path Ain FIG. 1, to initially determine whether the source account of consumer110 is in good standing and if sufficient funds/credit are present inthe account to cover the transfer/transaction. If approved, a response(indicating approval of the transfer) is transmitted from the financialinstitution 102 to the financial institution 104 (e.g., the recipientbank associated with the destination account of receiving consumer 112(or a receiving merchant if involved in the transaction instead ofconsumer 112), etc.), through the payment network 106, such as, forexample, through MasterCard®, VISA®, Discover®, American Express®, etc.At the same time, the financial institution 102 may also debit theappropriate funds from the source account and hold them for furtherprocessing. The transfer is later cleared and/or settled (viaappropriate messages such as clearing messages and/or settlementmessages) by and between the financial institutions 102, 104 (byappropriate agreements, and with the financial institution 104 acting asan issuer of the receiving consumer 112 (or as an acquirer for areceiving merchant where involved in the transaction), for example).

As previously described, in various embodiments the fund transferapplication may be provided by and/or associated with the paymentnetwork 106, or a digital service provider that holds account detailsfor the consumer 110. In such embodiments, upon receiving the fundtransfer details, the communication device 116 compiles a transactionrequest and, via the application, initiates an API call to the financialinstitution 104 or to the payment network 106 in connection withsubmitting the request. For example, the payment network 106 may providethe fund transfer application, for use at the communication device 116,and may directly provide services to initiate the fund transfer at thepayment network 106 via APIs. Here, the payment network 106 may thencommunicate with the financial institution 102 to determine whether thesource account of consumer 110 is in good standing and if sufficientfunds/credit are present in the account to cover thetransfer/transaction. The request is then processed, by the paymentnetwork 106, in a similar manner to above.

In another example transaction, the consumer 110 may desire to transferfunds from his/her account (as a source account) to a merchant, toeffect payment of an invoice (where the account of the merchant is thedestination (or recipient) account), for example, via the consumer'scommunication device 116 using various APIs associated with the fundtransfer application. The communication device 116 again includes aninput device (e.g., input device 208, etc.) by which the consumer 110can scan (or otherwise capture, view, record, interpret, photograph,etc.) a computer-readable indicia of at an invoice of the merchant. Inturn, the payment application effects a pull transaction to transfer theappropriate funds from the consumer 110 to the merchant. Here, thepayment network 106 (or a service manager acting on behalf of thepayment network 106 or on behalf of a third party) determines anacquirer of the recipient merchant, for example, based on merchantID-acquirer mapping info stored during merchant registration, etc., androutes a transaction request (e.g., a transaction message, etc.) to theacquirer. The acquirer will then submit the transaction request to thepayment network 106 for processing, and the financial institution 102 ofthe consumer 110 will check balance and good standing of the consumer'saccount and send an authorization reply (e.g., a confirmation message,etc.) to the acquirer via the payment network 106. Again, clearing andsettlement may be immediate or delayed depending, for example, on thenetwork message type and/or the payment network 106.

Transaction data is generated, collected, and stored as part of theabove interactions among the financial institutions 102, 104, thepayment network 106, and the consumers 110, 112 (and included in thevarious messages). The transaction data includes, for example,authorization, clearing and/or settlement data, etc. The transactiondata, in this exemplary embodiment, is stored at least by the paymentnetwork 106 (e.g., in a data structure associated with the paymentnetwork 106, etc.). Additionally, or alternatively, the financialinstitutions 102, 104 may store the transaction data, or part thereof,in a data structure, or transaction data may be transmitted betweenparts of system 100 as used or needed. In general, such transaction datamay include, for example, PANs and/or tokens for consumers involved inthe fund transfers, amounts of transfers, consumer name, consumermessage, other data associated with the involved accounts, dates/timesof the transfers, etc. It should be appreciated that more or lessinformation related to fund transfers, as part of either authorizationor clearing and/or settlement, may be included in transaction recordsand stored within the system 100.

In various exemplary embodiments, the consumers (e.g., consumers 110,112, etc.) involved in the different transactions herein agree to legalterms associated with their accounts, for example, during enrollment intheir accounts, etc. In so doing, the consumers may voluntarily agree,for example, to allow various parts of the system 100 to use datacollected during enrollment and/or collected in connection withprocessing the various transactions herein, subsequently for one or moreof the different operations described herein.

FIG. 3 illustrates an exemplary method 300 for use in processing fundtransfers between consumers, in accordance with the description herein.In particular, the method 300 is described with reference to a transferof funds between consumer 110 and consumer 112 in the system 100, andwith additional reference to the financial institutions 102, 104 and thepayment network 106. The method 300 is also described with reference tocomputing device 200. It should be appreciated, however, that themethods herein are not limited to the system 100 and the computingdevice 200, and that the systems and computing devices herein are notlimited to method 300.

In the method 300, the accounts associated with the consumers 110, 112are payment accounts. And, the access device 114 associated with theconsumer 112 is the credit card 114 a having the QR code 118 a (as thecomputer-readable indicia 118). In addition, the method 300 is describedin connection with the consumer 110 transferring funds from his/herpayment account to the payment account associated with the consumer 112.In connection therewith, the payment account of the consumer 112 isreferred to as the destination account, and the payment account of theconsumer 110 is referred to as the source account. It should beappreciated, however, that the present disclosure is not limited by thisdescription, and that access devices other than the credit card 114 aand computer-readable indicia other than the QR code 118 a may be usedin other embodiments.

With reference to FIG. 3, initially in the method 300 (e.g., in adistribution phase, etc.), the financial institution 104 (acting as anissuer in this example) provides the credit card 114 a with the QR code118 a thereon to the consumer 112. Alternatively, the financialinstitution 104 may provide the QR code 118 a on a separate medium thatis then capable of being affixed to the credit card 114 a (or to anotherdevice, as desired by the consumer 112).

In either case, through the QR code 118 a, the financial institution 104encodes, at 302, at the least, an account identifier onto the creditcard 114 a (and, in some embodiments, additional information relating tothe consumer 112 and/or the consumer's payment account). For example,the QR code 118 a may include (or may be representative of) the PANassociated with the destination payment account of the consumer 112(such that it can subsequently be used to identify the consumer'saccount). In addition, the QR code 118 a may include informationidentifying a name of the payment account, a name of the consumer 112associated with the payment account, and a name of the financialinstitution 104 that provided the payment account. The financialinstitution 104 then distributes, at 304, the credit card 114 a (orother medium) with the QR code 118 a thereon to the consumer 112. Suchdistribution may be done physically via mail or other appropriate meansof shipping, or virtually via communications network 108.

As an example, the QR code 118 a may include a 25×25 pixel QR Code(version 2), which carries twenty-nine alphanumeric error correctedcharacters. As part of these characters, the QR code 118 a may contain,for example (and without limitation), a code ID, a version ID, a codebit map, and an account identifier for the destination account of theconsumer 112 (e.g., the PAN in the method 300, but alternatively atoken, etc.). Optionally, in implementations where the QR code 118 a isused for billing purposes (and potentially included on invoices for amerchant, instead of a credit card or other payment device), it may alsocontain, for example (and without limitation), an invoice ID and/orproduct identifier, an invoice amount, and a currency code.

When the consumer 110 desires to initiate a fund transfer transaction tothe consumer 112 (e.g., in a transfer phase, etc.), the consumer 112provides the credit card 114 a to the consumer 110 and the consumer 110scans (or otherwise reads), at 306, the QR code 118 a on the credit card114 a to retrieve the account identifier for the destination paymentaccount. For example, the consumer 110 may scan the QR code 118 a usinga camera input device 208 of the communication device 116, as allowedand/or configured by the fund transfer application thereon. The consumer110 may then also provide a transfer amount to the communication device118 (e.g., via an input device 208, etc.) and select the source paymentaccount from which the funds are to be transferred (e.g., manually, froma predefined list of accounts, from a scan of another computer-readableindicia, etc.). In turn, the communication device 116 (and the fundtransfer application) receives the fund transfer amount, at 308, and theselection of the source payment account, from where the funds are to betransferred, at 310.

Next, the communication device 116, via the fund transfer application,compiles a transaction request for the transfer, at 312, and submits (ordelivers) the request, at 314, as appropriate (e.g., to the financialinstitution 102, to the payment network 106, etc. directly or via APIs,depending on the source of the fund transfer application; etc.). Thetransaction request is generally based on the encoded account identifierretrieved by scanning the QR code 118 a, the fund transfer amountentered by the consumer 112, and the details of the source account fromwhich the funds are to be transferred. The request may also include datanecessary for interpretation by other parts of the system 100, forexample, according to standard protocols or the like. The transactionrequest is typically above other network messages in the system 100(e.g., authorization request messages, etc.). However, it iscontemplated that in at least one embodiment, the transaction requestmay include formatting/encoding according to ISO 8583, which is astandard for transaction messages established by the InternationalOrganization for Standardization. And, in particular, it is contemplatedthat the transaction request may include a message type indicator (MTI)of “0100”, indicating that the request is for authorization of the fundtransfer/transaction by the financial institution 102, associated withthe source payment account of the consumer 110.

In some embodiments, the transaction request may include flags/flag bitsto indicate settings and/or parameters that apply to the transfer. Forinstance, a flag may be set in the transaction request indicating thatonly deposits are allowed to the destination account and withdrawalsfrom the destination account are forbidden. Then, when an entity (e.g.,financial institution 104 associated with the destination account of theconsumer 112 in the above example, etc.) receives a transaction requestincluding such a flag and the transaction request includes a withdrawalrequest/instruction, the financial institution may decline or refuse tocomplete the transfer/transaction.

FIG. 4 illustrates an example graphical user interface 400 that may beassociated with the fund transfer application included at thecommunication device 116. The interface 400 may be used by the consumer110 to enter the necessary transfer information to cause the fundtransfer to the consumer 112. It should be understood that the interface400 is exemplary in nature, and is not limiting. Other embodiments mayinclude more or different interfaces with more, fewer, or differentelements therein.

As shown in FIG. 4, the interface 400 includes a screen output 402 thatdisplays a view from a camera (broadly, an input device 208) of thecommunication device 116. The center of the screen output 402 includesan overlay 404 indicating how to arrange the QR code 118 a from thecredit card 114 a (broadly, a computer-readable indicia) in relation tothe camera, in order for the QR code 118 a to be properlyscanned/captured by the communication device 116. The overlay 404represents the portion of the QR code 118 a, captured by thepicture/camera, that will be analyzed by the communication device 116(e.g., via processor 202, etc.), as instructed by the fund transferapplication, to interpret the QR code 118 a. Alternatively, the screenoutput 402 may not include an overlay 404, and the entire photo capturedby the camera may be analyzed to discover and interpret anycomputer-readable indicia that may be present therein. A scan button 406then enables the consumer 110 to activate the camera and capture the QRcode 118 a (e.g., when it is properly aligned in the overlay 404, etc.).In some embodiments, the communication device 116, via the fund transferapplication, may be configured to detect automatically when acomputer-readable indicia is lined up with the camera, and scan/capturethe indicia at that time.

The interface 400 also includes an amount section 408 that enables theconsumer 110 to input the amount of funds to transfer to the consumer112. The amount may be directly entered into the section 408 (e.g., viaa keypad, via voice command, etc.), or it may be selected frompredefined amounts as part of a drop-down menu, etc. A source accountsection 410 is provided generally below the amount section 408 to allowthe consumer 110 to either directly input the account information forthe source account, or to select the source account from other availableaccounts, from which the funds are to be transferred. When the interface400 includes information for only a single account, the source accountsection 410 may be automatically populated by default into the sourceaccount section 410. However, when the interface 400 includesinformation for multiple accounts, the source account section 410 mayeither populate with the first account in the listing of multipleaccounts, or with another account selected by the consumer 110 to be thedefault account, or may allow the consumer 110 to select a desired oneof the multiple accounts using a drop down control 412. In any case,once the desired data is received in the interface 400, the consumer 110can select a send payment button 414 to cause the fund transfer to beinitiated as well as, potentially, a transaction request for thetransaction. In some embodiments, the send payment button 414 may bedeactivated until all of the information (e.g., the scan of the QR code118 a, the transfer amount, and the source account, etc.) is selected onthe interface 400.

While in the illustrated interface 400 the source account section 410 isshown as utilizing the drop down control 412, other configurations maybe used, such as, for example, a multi-row selection window, a set ofbuttons, or the like. In addition, it should be understood that, whilethe elements of the interface 400 are arranged in one order, otherembodiments of fund transfer application interfaces may include more,fewer, or different elements in different orders, arrangements, or thelike. For instance, in some embodiments, a payment memo, or message, maybe provided by the sender of the fund transfer in the payment request,which enables the sender to provide information to the recipient of thefund transfer, such as a purpose of the transfer or specific detailspertaining to the transfer. Further, in some embodiments, once acomputer-readable indicia is scanned, the screen output 402 may indicateand/or display information about the associated destination account,such as an account owner name or financial institution name, and accountidentifier (e.g., a PAN, etc.), etc. As described above, this additionalinformation may be encoded in the computer-readable indicia. Theindication or display of such information may then be used by theconsumer 110, for example, to confirm that the destination accountinformation conforms to the destination desired for the fund transfer.

With reference again to FIG. 3, when the financial institution 104provides and/or is associated with the fund transfer application (orwhen another part of the system 100 provides and/or is associated withthe fund transfer application and imitates an API call to the financialinstitution 104 in connection with submitting the transaction request at314), the financial institution 102 receives the transaction requestfrom the communication device 116, at 316. In turn, the financialinstitution 102 extracts the encoded account identifier from therequest, at 318, and identifies the destination payment account of theconsumer 112, at 320, based on the extracted account identifier. Asdescribed above, in the method 300, the account identifier includes thePAN associated with the destination account for the consumer 112. Assuch, upon determining the PAN, the financial institution 102 canidentify the destination payment account.

Alternatively, when the fund transfer application is provided by and/oris associated with another part of the system 100 (e.g., the paymentnetwork 106, a digital service provider that holds account details forthe consumer 110, etc.), the communication device 116 associated withthe consumer 110 may imitate an API call to the payment network 106 inconnection with submitting the transaction request at 314. Here, thepayment network 106 receives the transaction request from thecommunication device 116, at 316. In turn, the payment network 106extracts the encoded account identifier from the request, at 318, andidentifies the destination payment account of the consumer 112, at 320,based on the extracted account identifier. As described above, in themethod 300, the account identifier includes the PAN associated with thedestination account for the consumer 112. As such, upon determining thePAN, the payment network 106 can identify the destination paymentaccount and effect the fund transfer, as appropriate.

As described above, the QR code 118 a may include a 25×25 pixel QR Code(version 2), which carries twenty-nine alphanumeric error correctedcharacters. As part of these characters, the QR code 118 a may contain,for example (and without limitation), the code ID, the version ID, thecode bit map, and the account identifier the destination account of theconsumer 112 (e.g., the PAN in the method 300, but alternatively atoken, etc.). The QR code 118 a can be decoded by the communicationdevice 116 following generally known standards defined for QR codes(based on the 25×25 pixel (version 2) configuration, etc.), and thevarious elements (or characters) encoded in the QR code 118 a then usedto build/compile the funds transfer request. The financial institution102 (or payment network 106, which may define an API the communicationdevice 116 must follow) will then receive the data according tospecifications it has defined.

Finally, after the destination account is identified, in this example,the financial institution 102 initiates the fund transfer, at 322, fromthe source account of the consumer 110 to the destination account of theconsumer 112. In some embodiments, the fund transfer may be completed bythe financial institution 102 by transferring the funds to the financialinstitution 104, or by simply appending the transfer amount to thedestination account of the consumer 112 (or by combinations thereof).Alternatively, additional approval may be required from the consumer110, such that the financial institution 102 initiates a fund transferas described above only after such further approval.

In some embodiments, one or more of the financial institutions 102, 104may transmit a reply to the consumer 110, at the communication device116, with a confirmation of the fund transfer. Alternatively, if thefund transfer fails, the communication device 116 may receive notice ofthe failure and/or a reason for the failure.

In view of the above, the systems and methods herein may enableconsumers to execute a fund transfer from a source account to adestination account based on scanning computer-readable indiciaincluding a destination account identifier into a fund transferapplication. The application may include selecting a source account anda transfer amount. The destination account identifier may be used by theappropriate financial institution to determine the destination accountsuch that the fund transfer is completed.

Again and as previously described, it should be appreciated that thefunctions described herein, in some embodiments, may be described incomputer executable instructions stored on a computer readable media,and executable by one or more processors. The computer readable media isa non-transitory computer readable storage medium. By way of example,and not limitation, such computer-readable media can include RAM, ROM,EEPROM, CD-ROM or other optical disk storage, magnetic disk storage orother magnetic storage devices, or any other medium that can be used tocarry or store desired program code in the form of instructions or datastructures and that can be accessed by a computer. Combinations of theabove should also be included within the scope of computer-readablemedia.

It should also be appreciated that one or more aspects of the presentdisclosure transforms a general-purpose computing device into aspecial-purpose computing device when configured to perform thefunctions, methods, and/or processes described herein.

As will be appreciated based on the foregoing specification, theabove-described embodiments of the disclosure may be implemented usingcomputer programming or engineering techniques including computersoftware, firmware, hardware or any combination or subset thereof,wherein the technical effect may be achieved by: (a) causing adestination account identifier associated with a destination account tobe encoded on a medium as computer-readable indicia, wherein thedestination account identifier enables deposits to the destinationaccount and does not enable withdrawals from the destination account;(b) causing the medium to be delivered to a consumer; (c) capturing atleast one symbol representative of the destination account identifierassociated with the destination account; (b) identifying a sourceaccount; (c) receiving at least one payment parameter; (d) causing afund transfer transaction based on the destination account identifier,the source account identifier, and the at least one payment parameter,whereby a payment from the source account to the destination account isinitiated; (e) receiving, in connection with the fund transfertransaction, a transaction request associated with the destinationaccount; (f) when the transaction request includes the destinationaccount identifier, causing, by the computing device, a transaction tobe applied to the destination account; and (g) declining the transactionwhen the transaction includes a debit from said destination account.

Exemplary embodiments are provided so that this disclosure will bethorough, and will fully convey the scope to those who are skilled inthe art. Numerous specific details are set forth such as examples ofspecific components, devices, and methods, to provide a thoroughunderstanding of embodiments of the present disclosure. It will beapparent to those skilled in the art that specific details need not beemployed, that example embodiments may be embodied in many differentforms and that neither should be construed to limit the scope of thedisclosure. In some example embodiments, well-known processes,well-known device structures, and well-known technologies are notdescribed in detail.

The terminology used herein is for the purpose of describing particularexemplary embodiments only and is not intended to be limiting. As usedherein, the singular forms “a,” “an,” and “the” may be intended toinclude the plural forms as well, unless the context clearly indicatesotherwise. The terms “comprises,” “comprising,” “including,” and“having,” are inclusive and therefore specify the presence of statedfeatures, integers, steps, operations, elements, and/or components, butdo not preclude the presence or addition of one or more other features,integers, steps, operations, elements, components, and/or groupsthereof. The method steps, processes, and operations described hereinare not to be construed as necessarily requiring their performance inthe particular order discussed or illustrated, unless specificallyidentified as an order of performance. It is also to be understood thatadditional or alternative steps may be employed.

When a feature is referred to as being “on,” “engaged to,” “connectedto,” “coupled to,” “associated with,” “included with,” or “incommunication with” another feature, it may be directly on, engaged,connected, coupled, associated, included, or in communication to or withthe other feature, or intervening features may be present. As usedherein, the term “and/or” includes any and all combinations of one ormore of the associated listed items.

Although the terms first, second, third, etc. may be used herein todescribe various features, these features should not be limited by theseterms. These terms may be only used to distinguish one feature fromanother. Terms such as “first,” “second,” and other numerical terms whenused herein do not imply a sequence or order unless clearly indicated bythe context. Thus, a first feature discussed herein could be termed asecond feature without departing from the teachings of the exampleembodiments.

None of the elements recited in the claims are intended to be ameans-plus-function element within the meaning of 35 U.S.C. § 112(f)unless an element is expressly recited using the phrase “means for,” orin the case of a method claim using the phrases “operation for” or “stepfor.”

The foregoing description of exemplary embodiments has been provided forpurposes of illustration and description. It is not intended to beexhaustive or to limit the disclosure. Individual elements or featuresof a particular embodiment are generally not limited to that particularembodiment, but, where applicable, are interchangeable and can be usedin a selected embodiment, even if not specifically shown or described.The same may also be varied in many ways. Such variations are not to beregarded as a departure from the disclosure, and all such modificationsare intended to be included within the scope of the disclosure.

What is claimed is:
 1. A computer-implemented method for facilitatingidentification of a destination account participating in a fund transferfrom a source account associated with a user, the computer-implementedmethod comprising: capturing, by a computing device, at least one symbolrepresentative of: a destination account identifier specific to thedestination account of a first party and a name of the first partyassociated with the destination account, the at least one symbolincluding a quick response (QR) code disposed on a payment card for thedestination account; in response to the captured at least one symbol,displaying, by the computing device, the name of the first party, basedon the captured at least one symbol, as a confirmation that the firstparty is associated with the destination account; receiving, by thecomputing device, from the user, at a fund transfer interface, aselection of the source account from which funds are to be transferred;identifying, by the computing device, a source account identifierassociated with the selected source account; receiving, by the computingdevice, from the user, at the fund transfer interface, a payment amountfor the fund transfer; compiling, by the computing device, a transferrequest for the fund transfer based on: the destination accountidentifier, the source account identifier associated with the selectedsource account, and the payment amount for the fund transfer; andcausing, by the computing device, a fund transfer transaction from theuser to the first party based on the transfer request, whereby the fundtransfer from the source account to the destination account isinitiated.
 2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein thedestination account identifier includes a primary account number (PAN)of the destination account.
 3. The computer-implemented method of claim1, wherein the destination account identifier includes a tokenassociated with the destination account.
 4. The computer-implementedmethod of claim 1, wherein capturing, by the computing device, the atleast one symbol includes photographing the at least one symbol with acamera of the computing device.
 5. The computer-implemented method ofclaim 1, wherein the destination account identifier includes adeposit-only identifier for the destination account; and whereincompiling the transfer request for the fund transfer further includessetting a flag in the transfer request indicating that only deposits areallowed to the destination account.
 6. The computer-implemented methodof claim 1, further comprising receiving, from the user, an inputconfirming to proceed in the fund transfer based on the name displayedfor the destination account.
 7. A non-transitory computer-readablestorage medium including computer executable instructions forfacilitating a payment between a source account and a destinationaccount, which, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to:capture computer-readable indicia associated with the destinationaccount from a card associated with a first party, wherein thedestination account is associated with the first party, thecomputer-readable indicia including a static barcode or quick response(QR) code indicative of: i) a destination account identifier for thedestination account and ii) a name associated with the destinationaccount; in response to the captured computer-readable indicia, display,at a fund transfer interface, the name associated with the destinationaccount from the captured computer-readable indicia to a user associatedwith the source account; receive, from the user, at the fund transferinterface, a payment amount for a fund transfer from the source accountto the destination account; receive, from the user, at the fund transferinterface, a selection of the source account associated with the user;compile a fund transfer request for the fund transfer, the requestincluding the destination account identifier, data specific to thesource account, and the payment amount; and cause a fund transfertransaction, based on the fund transfer payment request, to the firstparty associated with the destination account, whereby the fund transferfrom the source account to the destination account is initiated.
 8. Thenon-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 7, wherein thecomputer executable instructions, when executed by the processor, causethe processor, in order to capture the computer-readable indiciaassociated with the destination account, to capture an image of thecomputer-readable indicia.
 9. The non-transitory computer-readablestorage medium of claim 7, wherein the destination account identifierincludes a primary account number (PAN) of the destination account. 10.The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 7, whereinthe destination account identifier includes a token associated with thedestination account.
 11. The non-transitory computer-readable storagemedium of claim 7, wherein the destination account identifier includes adeposit-only identifier for the destination account.
 12. Thenon-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 11, wherein thecomputer executable instructions, when executed by the processor, causethe processor, in order to compile the fund transfer request for thefund transfer, to set a flag in the fund transfer request indicatingthat only deposits are allowed to the destination account.
 13. Thenon-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 7, wherein thecomputer executable instructions, when executed by the processor, causethe processor to receive, from the user, an input confirming to proceedin the fund transfer after displaying the name associated with thedestination account and prior to receiving the selection of the sourceaccount.